Bridges Books

Every night I made my mother read this to me, and once she finished, she always knew to read it again. One of my all time favorites.

when i read sven's bridge. it was a colorful story that i could not wait to turn the page

Ms. Espinet weaved together a wonderful story that reads like poetry. I loved how the storyline moved back and forth from Mona's childhood to the present day. Beautifully and well written.

This author is wonderful. This is the first novel I have read of hers and I was absolutely astounded by its depth and poignancy. Her wonderful grasp of the West Indian colloquialisms are juxtaposed beautifully with her experiences in Canada. A MUST READ!

I consider this the Holy of Holies for Blake's 7. My copy, obtained at a Barnes and Noble, is sadly showing it's age. It has all the plots, information and even a "synopsis" on who might have survived and who didn't. (Such as "Zen: Dead. Lost when the Liberator broke up over Terminal...", etc. A must have if you like Blake's 7!!

A must for any real Blake's 7 fan! Contains complete information regarding cast, directors, producers, plot summaries and interviews with several cast members and others. Index defines every term used in the series.

Another fantastic book by Olga Bogdashina. She is far and away my favourite professional author on this subject... always so open minded, interesting, and thorough. The title of this book simply doesn't do it justice. If I could name one book that answers, as fully as presently can be, the question `What is Autism / Asperger Syndrome?' this one would be it.

It is divided in to four sections - Autism as it is Officially Defined, Autism from the Inside, Parents, and Professionals. Each of these sections explores Definitions, Diagnosis, Causes, Development, and Treatments from that particular perspective, and in her usual comprehensive fashion, at the end of each section, the author mops up any angles not yet covered under the heading Miscellany: Thoughts to Share.

As always this book is so comprehensive and detailed that it could put you off. Lighter and shorter reads are available. To anyone who wants to really get a thorough understanding though I cannot recommend this book enough. The authors writing has quality and clarity and she handles the subject matter sensitively and thoughtfully. Top marks as usual.

It's almost as if the woman is an aspie herself. I mean, she is thorough about this topic; and I mean, not just, here are the traditional factoids, but also, here are the dynamics that make up this community.

If you are a stranger to the Asperger's/Autism world, this is the book to read to really understand what's going on. She cites all of the relevant people from Luke Jackson's "Freaks, Geeks & Asperger Syndrome: A User Guide to Adolescence" to Jim Sinclair to Tony Attwood (of course).

As an dxed aspie myself(another important facet of the community), I highly recommend this book to all, NTs (Neurotypicals) and aspies/auties alike.

This is such a darling book. It's a big day for the railway - they've opened a new bridge in the mountains that is so high that "you can't even seen the valley below." Henry, Thomas and Gordon have been selected to take passengers up to the mountains. However, Henry is scared half to death to do it and by the time they get up there, he's convinced Thomas that he should be afraid too. Gordon just buzzes right along and has a great old time while the other two are left to themselves to cross the bridge. Henry tells Thomas to close his eyes so that he won't see anything scary and when he does, Thomas almost goes off the track! He finally opens his eyes when he hears Harold coming to save him and when he does, realizes how beautiful the scenery really is and then goes across the bridge very happily. He also convinces Henry that there's nothing to fear and he crosses as well.

This is such a cute story and a great one to teach children not to be afraid to try new things. Highly recommend! By the way, we found a copy of this at a local walmart if amazon is out of stock still..

"It was a special day for the railway! `We are here to launch the new rail line through the Mountains of Sodor', Sir Topham Hatt announced. `Today we open the big, big bridge!' What wonderful news! Everyone cheered. The mountains were beautiful. The people of Sodor couldn't wait to visit them." -From the book

Thomas and the Big, Big Bridge is a Little Golden Book (hardcover) that tells the story of a new bridge spanning the mountains of Sodor. Henry is especially nervous, for it is very windy up on the mountains-and he's afraid of heights! Sir Topham Hatt sends out Gordon, Henry, Thomas, Annie, and Clarabel for the maiden voyage, and people cheer as they make their way to the bridge. However, Henry's fear is contagious, and Thomas closes his eyes up on the bridge. Because he wasn't looking where he was going, his wheels come off the track. How will Thomas, Annie, and Clarabel get off the mountain?

This delightful book is beautifully illustrated, and shows children that sometimes our fear can get us intro trouble-and cause us to miss out on the beautiful aspects of the experience and even our surroundings. Cooperation and encouraging others is also highlighted in this book.

William H. McNeill emphasizes the importance of cultural interchange in the rise and fall of great civilizations. I think Roberts goes wrong here when he neglects to point out the critical role played by the Mongols in disseminating Chinese technology to Europe - things such as the compass, paper, printing and gunpowder, which quickly enabled Europeans to circumnavigate and settle the globe.

Certainly both McNeill and Joseph Needham, the distinguished British historian of science, would dispute one of Roberts's main points: that Europe owed nothing to the rest of the world for its subsequent "triumph". At the very least Roberts presents a one-sided view.

Historically China has been the richest and the most powerful civilization in the world. The last few centuries saw the rise and dominance of Europeans, who not only created the scientific and industrial revolutions but who aggressively explored and settled the whole world. It remains to be seen whether China will be able to catch up. Even if it resumes its former position as the leading civilization, it remains a question whether it can reverse Western dominance everywhere. The sinologist John K. Fairbank despairs of this possibility. Others aren't so sure. Roberts himself has doubts about the "triumph" of the West; hence the chapters entitled "A Sense of Decline", and "A Post-Western World?"

I think we must be clear about what time-frame we're talking about when discussing what the future holds for world history. The triumph of the West is not likely to be a mere afterthought even two or three hundred years from now. But all bets are off if our time-frame is extended to over a thousand years.

What is a thousand years? Roberts's own analogy is excellent when discussing relative timespans in his "History of the World". If "one minute" is compared to a hundred years, then mankind began to evolve from apelike creatures about "two or three weeks" ago, developed writing much less than "an hour" ago, and Christianity was born about "twenty minutes" ago, while Europeans began to settle in the Americas about "five minutes" ago, and of course both the two world wars and the cold war happened within the last "60 seconds".

To a paleontologist, the appearance of apelike creatures would itself seem like a mere instant ago because the dinosaurs only died about "450 days" ago and life first appeared on Earth as early as "60 YEARS" ago. To an astronomer even this is short: the Universe is over "two and a half centuries" old. And if Sir Martin Rees of Cambridge is correct then "our" Universe is only the latest in an endless series - itself one series among countless others - stretching back to infinity.

So, using our analogy, what is the shape of the world to come "ten minutes" from now? Will the West still be the dominant civilization? I think China can afford to take its time, having existed as an independent civilization for at least "half an hour" by now. After all "ten minutes" ago even England was under foreign rule (first by the Danes and then by the French).

But will the Earth still be habitable in the fourth millennium? That's much harder to say. Of course, not even a nuclear war or a giant asteroid can wipe out all life on Earth; evolution will start all over again much as it did when the dinosaurs died. Only when the Sun dies or if our solar system gets sucked into a giant black hole will life disappear from Earth. So there's always hope and cause for optimism.

This is an excellent book. I'd love to see Roberts bring it up to date and speculate a bit on the future.

J. M. Roberts is probably the best person writing popular histories in the world today. His "History of the World" and "A History of Europe" are more recent examples of his good writing skills.

But, this book is from earlier. It shows how good of a writer of history Roberts is. It is much more of an anylasis of what makes up Western Civilization, and what the author thinks is the reason it was able to fling itself outward at the world world, and basically subdue it all for a time. Sometimes which was basically umprecentented in the history of the world.

He critizes at times, but mainly he believes there is more good in Western Civilization than bad. Which, of course, is the truth.

This is a very well written tongue-in-cheek novel. Humour reigns supreme, with plenty of action and a murder mystery thrown in for good measure. A real page turner, the descriptions are realistic enough to suck you in. Not for the weak,however. You can almost smell the testosterone on these pages. ...

Despite their much vaunted status as book reviewers, after I read the The Trouble With Patriots, I realized that Publisher's Weekly and Kirkus don't know anything about American tastes. Americans love humor, anytime. Why do they think so many Osama bin Laden songs popped up in the wake of 9/11? And the PW reviewer had the protagonist playing poker with American "slackers" when it was with British soldiers.

Hays' book has some problems. It moves at lightning speed and sometimes the drinking bouts are a bit much, but he keeps your nose stuck in the book and leaves you laughing out loud most of the time. I give it a big thumbs up.

This is one of the best picture books I have read in a long time! The Brooklyn Bridge is completed and skeptics wonder just how long it will stand. P. T. Barnum decides to capitalize on their skepticism and arranges a parade of his elephants across the bridge as they head to Manhattan for their latest migration of the "Greatest Show on Earth."

I teach a class of 25 1st grade students in a 'gifted' classroom and they were riveted throughout the entire story...and so were the two parent volunteers at the back of the room. The vocabulary is extremely rich and advanced and this book provided wonderful enrichment to our study of bridges in a community. One of the best parts of the book was the final 'Author's Note' which described the extensive research that an author must complete to create an effective story.

It took fourteen years of construction to build the Brooklyn Bridge, connecting Brooklyn and New York - but some wondered how much weight the new bridge could safely handle. One man decided to show them it was strong enough to hold even the heaviest passenger -- and demonstrated this with elephants. The man's name? P.T. Barnum. It reads with the drama of fiction but Twenty-one Elephants And Still Standing is based on fact, which is even more intriguing.

This is a short yet very powerful book. If you are in need of healing buy this book.

"Twilight & Dawn" is a story that gives life to the scripture 'Be still and know that I am God' (Psalm 46:10). Gwen Lanning, a woman suffering from a debilitating condition reaches a point in her life wherein she 'forgets' the power of the Almighty God. The moral of the story is this: While we as Christians sometimes rely on human resources, God is able to do ALL things!

I am delighted to recommend the book, "Under the Bridge and Back Again" which is Part 1 of the Winthrope Mysteries by Mike Bradford. Realizing the setting was Louisville, Ky. and other areas I am familiar with, I anxiously awaited the publishing of his new Murder mystery. I found the book to be delightful, fascinating and moving. The combination of a love story and murder mystery kept my interest going and I found it difficult to put the book down until I finished it. The solving of the murder by Davis Winthrope and Kelly Servideo was a very surprising ending. Mr. Bradford is a very warm, witty, and highly entertaining writer which is reflected in his book. I look forward to reading more about the Winthropes and the situations in which they become involved in his next book of the Winthrope Myseries, "The Hole in the Bottom of the Sea."

Set mainly in Louisville, Kentucky, Mike Bradford's "Under the Bridge and Back Again" has just as much romance in it as it has mystery. Davis Winthorpe and Kitty Servideo are the love interests, and the antics of property mogul Harry Snapp add the spice to the mystery. A hallmark of good mysteries is the ability of the author to add an unexpected twist at the end, and Mr. Bradford has skillfully accomplished this.

The 25 chapters run by quickly; "Under the Bridge and Back Again" is the first book in The Winthorpe Mysteries, and I'm looking forward to reading the others.